


Bart Meets Delirium

by ciaan



Category: DCU, The Sandman
Genre: Crossovers That Aren't Really Crossovers, Gen, I'm Normal It's Everyone Else Who's Weird
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-24
Updated: 2012-09-24
Packaged: 2017-11-14 23:39:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/520717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ciaan/pseuds/ciaan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What it says in the title, because they can understand each other. Another early DCU fic, written January 2011.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bart Meets Delirium

Bart's running across the Atlantic when he notices the girl walking next to him. She's very definitely walking, ambling along like there's no hurry, yet keeping pace with him. Her hair is a dozen different colors and her eyes don't match. She grins and waves at him when she sees him looking. Bart runs through the list of every speedster he's ever heard of but none of them are her. Nor is there any spark and crackle of the speed force around her.

"Who are you?" Bart asks. "I'm Kid Flash."

"No. Not always."

Bart runs through the list of every psychic he's ever heard of but none of them are her either. "My name's Bart." It seems best to match the sense of truth in what she said.

"I'm Delirium. But not always." She looks a little sad but then she smiles at him again. The speed-still waves around them glow rainbow colors in the light. Bart skids down the side of a particularly large one and she slides down after him, arms flailing. "Where are you going?"

"To Italy for gelato."

"My sister said you were nice." The girl, Delirium, is skipping now. "She said she was looking forward to seeing you again."

"Who's your sister?"

"My older sister." That's clearly all the answer he's going to get. It doesn't help him find a solution. He doesn't remember ever meeting anyone like this girl before. "They say Italy's very romantic," she continues. "Blood and circuses."

"It has a lot of history. Every place has a lot of interesting stuff that people did but not all of it's history. It's not really fair."

She nods. "Are we there yet?"

There's still a hundred miles of ocean to go. Bart's never had anyone else complain about how long it takes for him to get somewhere. "You'd be there faster if you weren't matching my subjective time." Bart always has a lot of time to think when he travels. He's demolished the theory of relativity in his head over and over. He's never explained it to anyone else though because the mathematical equations would take a week to go through and that's boring. If he could talk to photons maybe they'd get it. But he's pretty sure they don't actually care about time, considering how fast they are.

"Will you carry me?"

Bart shrugs and she skips up into his arms. Suddenly she's as frozen as the ocean around them, like people normally are when he speeds. He has no idea how she did that. She doesn't feel human. She doesn't even really feel corporeal to the touch, even though that should be an oxymoron, and he is carrying her. Bart counts the colors in her hair as he runs. He's naming them all in every language he knows.

Finally he reaches Rome and stops in a little square next to his favorite gelato place. The world springs into motion around him and he sets the girl down.

"Did my time go away?" she asks. "Where does time go when it's gone? I don't like time."

"No one does." Bart starts walking at a human pace toward the door. "What flavor do you want?"

"Strawberry. Or funny."

"Funny sounds good but I don't think they sell it here." He orders strawberry for her and peach-walnut for himself. They eat on the side of a fountain, very fast so it doesn't melt. They both laugh a lot.


End file.
